Benefits

Data Sheet

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ServiceNow Problem Management

• Prevent Service Disruptions Proactively analyze service performance trends and review service configurations to identify potential failures and schedule remediation activities.

• Speed-up Service Restoration Publish known errors and workarounds in the knowledge base to help reduce incident durations, saving IT staff time when resolving repeat incidents and encouraging user self-help.

• Accelerate Root Cause Analysis Correlate problems with recent service activities and get to the true causes of problems faster using the Kepner-Tregoe Structured Problem Analysis methodology.

The IT ChallengeMany IT organizations are stuck fighting fires trying to keep the business running, leaving little time to research why those fires happen and find solutions to prevent them. Environments like this cause staff burnout and hinder the ability of IT to be a better business partner. This restricts business growth and prosperity.

A common challenge with adopting problem management is confusion between incident management and problem management. While Incident Management deals with fighting symptoms to incidents, Problem Management seeks to remove the causes of incidents permanently from the IT infrastructure. Problem management helps to identify the cause of an error in the IT infrastructure that is usually reported as occurrences of related incidents. Problem resolution and elimination of root cause often calls for applying a change to the configuration item in the existing IT environment. An effective problem management process can provide a very high return to the business.

The ServiceNow SolutionServiceNow® Problem Management helps organizations prevent problems and resulting incidents from happening, eliminate recurring incidents, and minimize the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented. ServiceNow supports the entire problem management lifecycle from first identification through investigation, documentation, and removal.

To proactively prevent incidents, staff reviews reports for service performance trends and reviews service configurations in the ServiceNow Configuration Management Database (CMDB) to identify potential failures. To help identify the true cause of a problem, staff can follow the Kepner-Tregoe Structured Problem Analysis methodology to avoid making wrong decisions based on subjective opinions. When errors and workarounds are identified they are published in the ServiceNow Knowledge Base. During an incident, workarounds are communicated to affected parties and stakeholders through Problem Management or Incident Alert Management. Remediation plans to permanently remove errors are scheduled through ServiceNow Change Management. To minimize the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented, ServiceNow Coaching Assessments monitor critical moments of a process in real-time giving coaches the opportunity to quickly intervene to correct any mistakes that could cause more trouble or delay service restoration.

Get to the true cause of a problem with Kepner-Tregoe Structured Problem Analysis

Data SheetServiceNow Problem Management

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Proactive Problem ManagementIT can proactively prevent incidents by analyzing service performance trends using built-in and custom reports. In addition, the ServiceNow CMDB business service management map presents an interactive visualization of service relationships and configuration item health that helps to locate weaknesses and assess any potential business impacts. Problem managers can work closely with configuration managers to ensure the CMDB is accurate by using the built-in data certification capability. Remediation plans can be scheduled through ServiceNow Change Management with a simple right-click. To reduce service desk calls for known issues, IT can publish workarounds to the ServiceNow Knowledge Base.

Structured Problem AnalysisServiceNow Problem Management provides a rational methodology called Structured Problem Analysis for investigating the true cause of a problem or incident. This methodology developed by Kepner-Tregoe helps problem managers avoid making wrong decisions based on subjective opinions. The process begins by appraising the situation. The team working the problem identifies concerns, sets priorities, plans next steps, and plans involvement. To analyze the problem, the team describes the problem, identifies possible causes, evaluates possible causes, and confirms the true cause. A problem analysis dashboard provides a high-level view of ongoing work. Analysis results are valuable for post incident reviews.

Coaching AssessmentsDuring a structured problem analysis, a manager can request a coaching assessment to monitor specific behavior in an individual or group and to provide timely feedback so that the individual or group can do a better job the next time. An assessment consists of coaching loops that evaluate critical moments in a process where real-time coaching is appropriate, such as when an incident is reassigned. When the moment occurs, the coach is immediately notified of a coaching opportunity and can decide whether to take action or not. If a mistake is caught, the coach can quickly intervene and get the process back on track to minimize any negative impact. Assessments are also a useful way to reward desired behavior, and can be run against any task in ServiceNow.

Personalized Metrics, Reports, and DashboardsServiceNow includes built-in metrics and surveys to measure service levels and drive continual service improvement. Users can create custom metrics and surveys to collect additional data. Results are presented in interactive reports and dashboards. A simple and flexible reporting engine allows users to quickly generate, customize, and save reports directly from a list of records with a simple right-click for instant analysis. Users can also personalize dashboards by simply dragging and dropping gauges and reports to highlight the most important information to them. Adding ServiceNow Performance Analytics provides even deeper insights with access to a large Key Performance Indicator (KPI) library and the ability to monitor trends.

Identify potential faults and analyze root causes with the ServiceNow CMDB

Publish known errors and communicate workarounds in the ServiceNow Knowledge Base